BIG BANKS BALK, SO COLORADO HAS CREATED A CREDIT UNION FOR THE MARIJUANA INDUSTRY (Source Mint Press) Nearly a year after Colorado’s first legal marijuana shops opened, the thriving industry’s biggest problem is deciding what to do with all of its cash. Now, the state banking commission believes it has found a way to free pot entrepreneurs from the regulatory haze between federal banking laws, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) policy, and the state’s right to experiment with legalization. The nation’s first bank for marijuana pushers, growers, and investors will open in January after Colorado’s banking regulators approved a charter for The Fourth Corner Credit Union. The first-of-its-kind bank will allow state business owners to move away from relying on cash for every transaction. Business has been very good for marijuana sellers since the state’s carefully designed legalization regime came online in early 2014, but traditional banks have refused to do business with the industry for fear of inviting punishment from regulators that are required to enforce the federal prohibition on the drug. That inability to access banking services has pushed the businesses into the arms of companies like Blue Line Protection Group, a security firm that specializes in moving and safeguarding huge piles of cash for the marijuana industry. As the cash stacked up and security concerns mounted, Colorado’s banking regulators came to view that problem as justification for approving a pot bank. Keeping Colorado’s marijuana revenue out of the hands of criminal enterprises will be much easier if the industry doesn’t have to rely on cash. “If you can’t get your cash into the Federal Reserve system, you end up stockpiling it in your home, in caves, in your business. At some point, the risk becomes worth it for organized crime,” state financial services commissioner Chris Myklebust told USA Today.